Fatteh is a favourite of Levantine people in and outside Ramadan. In its simplest form fatteh is shredded bread soaked in stock with some kind of topping. There are variations of Fatteh or similar bread based dishes all over the Middle East.

In Ramadan, Fatteh is the perfect starter to the evening meal. It is soft and easy to eat on an empty stomach after a long day of starvation. Above all it is definitely delicious.

In Syria, fatteh consists of three layers (sometime four, more on that later); Base of shredded bread soaked in stock, middle layer of the main ingredient and finally a youghrt and tahini sauce topping. Bread can be used fresh in some types of fatteh and fried in others. The middle layer could be one of many. Chickpeas, chicken, stuffed aubergines, kidneys are the most common roughly in that order. More exotic topping could include kidneys and trotters.

Chicken fatteh is a Damascene favourite. Served as a supper dish in many restaurants around town especially in the Old City. Biet Jabri used to serve an excellent chicken fatteh. I hadn't had any there for many years so I can't comment on the standard these days.

In Hama, chicken fatteh is served as a main dish rather than a starter. They fry the bread and add a fourth layer of cooked rice.

When serving fatteh you need to assemble it at the absolute last minute, when people are actually on the table. It need to be eaten immediately as the bread start to become soggy and the whole thing turn stodgy if you leave it anything more than few minutes. So, get everything ready beforehand.

One last thing before the recipe, please don't use Pitta bread for this dish. It will get very soggy. Please make the effort to find Arabic flat bread. It is sold in all the big Tesco stores and Middle Eastern shops.

Here is my Chicken Fatteh recipe:

Serves four as a starter or two hungry people as a nice warm supper.

Arabic bread 3 standard size (small)

Chicken thighs 4

Chicken stock 500mls

Onion cut into quarters

Youghrt 500 g

Tahini 4 tbs

Garlic 2-3 cloves

Lemon

Salt

Pepper

Parsley chopped 4 tbs

Pine nuts

Paprika

Start by cooking the chicken and making your stock. Wash the chicken thighs, cover with water and bring to boil skimming the surface till totally clear. Add the onion and Salt and pepper, turn down the heat and let simmer slowly for 45 - 60 min. This will give tender cooked chicken and beautiful golden stock. I don't use carrot, celery or bouquet garni to make my stock if I am cooking Arabic food, instead I use literally two cloves and two cardamoms. When cooked, remove the chicken and let cool down. Strain your stock and return to very low heat till you are ready to use it.

Shread your Arabic bread into one inch pieces. (picture above)

Remove the chicken meat from the bone and shred to bite size.

Add youghurt, tahini, crushed garlic, squeeze of lemon and salt and mix together to make your topping. Add more or less tahini as you like.

Now is the tricky bit, you may not get this right the first time or even if you make fatteh regularly you might still get one wrong every once in a while. The amount of stock varies on how fresh your bread is. The amounts I used (500mls stock and 3 standard size loafs) worked fine with fresh bread. If your bread is stalled or two days old you might need more stock as it will absorb more water.

To make the dish put the bread and the chicken in a deep bowl. Add one third of the youghurt sauce and the stock and mix together. Spoon the rest of the youghrt topping and spread evenly on top.

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comments:

I am enjoying very much the Ramadan mode despite not fasting as you know.

I wanted to tell you about a chicken fatteh dish I had the last time I was in Damascus, quite a la mode, and it was in a restaurant besides Umayyad Mosque called Laila's (Used to be Shahrazad in the old days I think).

Well the point is, very untraditionally, they have made the bread, soaked it with the sauce, topped it with more sauce (no chicken so far) and only then topped it with thinly sliced, pan fried and quite spiced chicken breasts with the garnishing. I found it quite odd but it was delicious none the less.

Two points I liked about it, first is that you see the chicken on top and it looked really good, it was pan fried with paprika, salt and pepper. The other is that I personally prefer fried or grilled or anything-else chicken to boiled one.

The weak point in it I guess is that it wouldn't have been made in real chicken stock. Especially if I would make it at home, it will be done with Magi cubes or the similar.

@TammamThat sound interesting. I would try to make it sometime. As a compromise and to get the best of both worlds take the breast meat of the bone and grill it. Use the bones, skins... etc to make the stock.

@um didiWelcome to my blog. I am glad you like the recipes and I hope you will try some of them at least.I am not a Chef! I have a full time job so cooking and this blog is my hobby and passion. I wish I can cook and publish something everyday but it is very time consuming so I have to publish every 5-7 days instead (and people will get bored if you write something everyday).Welcome again and Ramadan Kareem. Please do come back.

i love your site. i love cooking but ii'm not too familiar with syrian cooking. my husband is from damascus and he keeps craving for syrian dishes, i'm gonna try all your recipes. do you know how to make fatteh bzeit (with oil)? it is apparently a damascus specialty

Welcome to my blog. I am glad you like it. If you cook all the recipes I have published so far you will be an expert on Syrian cooking.

You reminded me of Fatteh bzeit. It is one of my favourite dishes. It is not difficult at all to make but the ingredients are the problem. You need a not-very-good quality olive oil with a high acidity levels but I am sure it will be fine using normal olive oil.

The main missing ingredient is something called "elli - قلي" this is some kind of a chemical material that emulsify olive oil and allow it to dissolve in water to form the characteristic milk-white liquid you use in the fatteh.

I need to experiment a bit, may be this weekend, and if I get good results I will post a recipe soon.

I just came from Damascus. It was my first trip to Syria, and I'm happy to inform you that Beit Jabri still serves an excellent chicken fatteh. I didn't know what it was when I ordered it, didn't know what it was when it was brought to the table - but when I tasted it, I absolutely immediately fell in love with it!

Thanks for this recipe!! I'm from London, live in Dubai and recently married a Syrian..like, a month ago!!! Ramadan's coming up and I seriously need to start learning how to make Ramadan favourites for him! Your blog, I think, will save my life :)

Ideally I will use Greek style yoghurt but due to wife orders we only have fat free natural yoghurt at home. So I used that instead. Works fine you might need to add a bit more lemon if the yoghurt is too sweet.

after trying recipe after recipe i had all but given up on making a good fatteh thankyou so much this is delicious it was an instant hit with the hubby i am forever grateful as it is a favourite of mine keep the recipes coming thanks again. Em Omar

Asalamoh alaikom. Hello Kano, my name is Cynthia. I was wondering if you knew about a dish that is made with I believe, yogurt(cooked,she had it on the stove) with garlic, fried pita, shredded chicken and chickpeas. I looked at your fatteh recipe but I'm not sure if that's what had I eaten that day. I think it tasted like lemon also. I never saw the lady again as it was at a mosque but she said it was a syrian dish. And thank you for sharing all your delectable dishes! God bless you and your family! :)

Hi there Kano, firstly, as this is my first post, I should thank you for posting these recipes, of which I have made quite a few! I studied in Syria the year before last for a year and miss the food incredibly.

One question I have for you though is on this chicken fetteh: I found the best fetteh I had out there always had a very hot 'soup' component - when I tried heating the yoghurt in your recipe, it separated. Do you know how they made this hot, thinner soup without separating it?

PS this chicken fetteh is overall one of the best things I have ever eaten!

Thank you so much for posting your recipe! Chicken fatteh is my absolute favorite Lebanese dish -- I had no idea it was a Syrian dish as well (we get something very similar with fried bread & pomegranate garnish at a wonderful Lebanese restaurant in my parents' neighborhood), and was intrigued to learn about this variation. We don't go out to eat all that often, and I'm so pleased to be able to make this at home now. I made it yesterday, using rice instead of bread (gluten intolerant, grumble) and it came out soooo good. I will definitely serve it next time I have company. And I'm excited to explore your blog more and lean about other tasty Syrian dishes. Thank you again!